Nazi Holocaust

Complicity by France, Germany & Switzerland

Sponsored link.

Overview:

It may have taken over five decades -- two generations -- but some of the
countries involved in mass crimes against Jews,
Roma and others during World War II are finally acknowledging
their past complicity and present responsibilities. Unfortunately it did
not come soon enough for those survivors of the Nazi Holocaust -- and of
German slave-labor programs -- who have already died. Some of the few remaining survivors and
their descendents may now attain a degree of closure, and a little cash to
help them in their old age.

Germany:

During World War II, about 11 million Jews, Roma
(Gypsies), Poles, other Eastern Europeans, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses and people of other nationalities and
religions were systematically exterminated during
the Nazi Holocaust. Since World War II, Germany has paid out nearly US$ 90
billion in restitution to Jewish and other survivors of the Nazi regime.

Millions of people were forced to work under inhuman conditions in Nazi
industry as slave laborers. Many did not survive. No financial restitution
was given by Germany and its industries (including a subsidiary of Ford) to its
former slave laborers after the war. In the late 1990's, survivors filed a
number of class action lawsuits against a variety of German-based industries. To
avoid massive court-ordered reparations, the German government and certain of
its industries negotiated an out-of-court settlement. More than five decades
after the last slave was freed, a final agreement was reached by which the
German government and some of its industries will contribute equal amounts to a
US$ 7.5 billion fund which will be dispersed to the approximately 1.5 to 2
million surviving victims of Nazi slavery. This amounts to a payment of about
US$ 0.50 per hour of slave labor for the survivors, and nothing for those who
have died -- a great deal for the companies involved! More
details.

Sponsored link:

Switzerland:

The complicity of the Swiss banks and government in funding the Nazi regime
was known at the end of World War II. However, the degree of deceit has only
recently become clear.

During the World War II era:

Before they were captured by the Nazi regime, an unknown number of Jewish
and other Holocaust victims had opened Swiss bank accounts and safety
deposit boxes, in order to prevent at least some of their assets from
following into Nazi hands.

German Banker Emil Puhl coordinated a Nazi program during the 1930's and
1940's to launder "monetary gold" stolen from the central banks of
Europe. It was often smelted in Germany together with "non-monetary
gold" -- a term used to describe the tooth fillings and gold rings
removed from the corpses of Holocaust victims. The Swiss banks accepted the
gold and provided loans to Germany. This significantly extended the
duration of World War II, and assured the survival of Switzerland as a
neutral country.

Paul Grueninger, police chief in St. Gallen Canton violated
regulations and helped thousands of Austrian Jews to escape to Switzerland.
He was dismissed from the police force and convicted of fraud. 55 years
later, the Swiss government exonerated him, posthumously. 7

1946: During this year:

After the war, the Swiss and American governments reached an accord in
which Switzerland was to return US$ 58 million to Europe's central banks.
This was about 25% of the country's estimated windfall. The Swiss government
also promised to liquidate about US$ 500 million in German assets in their
country, and contribute half to help resettle refugees. They never fulfilled
this commitment.

Holocaust survivors and families of holocaust victims attempted to reclaim
their assets deposited in Swiss banks. Some later testified to a U.S. Senate
committee investigation that some of the banks required that the families
provide death certificates -- an impossible task for victims of the Nazi
killing machine. Other banks allegedly made only a cursory search, if the
relatives could not provide an exact account number. 4

An American intelligence report, dated 1946-JAN-12, and released by
Senator Alfonse D'Amato (R-NY) and the World Jewish Congress in
1997, stated that 280 truckloads of German gold bars were sent from
Switzerland to Spain and Portugal between 1943-MAY and 1944-FEB. Swiss
officials said that the report was in error; only about 70 truckloads were
sent. They commented that it was German gold and that Switzerland only acted
as an intermediary.

1962: Swiss bankers said that they had released the last of their
unclaimed wartime bank deposits.

Federal President Kaspar Villiger admitted that "we bear a
considerable burden of guilt for the treatment of Jews by our country".
This was the first admission by a Swiss government leader of any Swiss
culpability for the fate of European Jewry; it took them 50 years to finally
admit wrongdoing. 7

1996: During this year:

Jean-Pascal Delamuraz, the president of Switzerland, said that American
efforts to create a "compensation fund" for Holocaust
survivors was "nothing less than extortion and blackmail...This fund
would make it much more difficult to establish the truth. Such a fund would
be considered an admission of guilt."5

Christopher Meili, a 28 year old security guard at the Union Bank of
Switzerland halted the destruction of bank documents from the World War
II era. He took some of the material that was about to be shredded and gave
it to a Jewish agency; it allegedly contained information about specific
bank clients. Reuters quoted a bank spokesperson as saying: "In
principle the documents and the Holocaust debate have nothing to do with
each other." 5

1997: The Volcker Commission, led by former U.S. Federal
Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, was set up by the Swiss banks, in cooperation
with the World Jewish Congress and the World Jewish Restitution
Organization. They started to examine Swiss accounts opened by foreigners
between 1933 and 1945. Hundreds of additional accounts totaling about US$ 8
million were found. Bankers also revealed that there are up to 20,000 dormant
accounts opened by Swiss citizens during the war, some of which may have been
set up to hold assets of Holocaust victims. The U.S. government issued a report
outlining the financial dealings between Swiss bankers and the Nazi regime.

2000: In mid year, the two largest banks in Switzerland, UBS and
Credit Suisse, approved a "1.25 billion-dollar global settlement aimed
at ending the long-running dispute over Holocaust assets." 6

France:

French complicity in Nazi atrocities was a dirty-little-secret that was not
publicly acknowledged by senior French officials, until recently:

1940: The Vichy government of France collaborated with Nazi Germany
by freezing about 80,000 Jewish bank accounts. During the following four years,
the government deported about 76,000 Jews to Nazi death camps. Only about
2,500 of these survived.

1995: It took more than five decades after the atrocities ended
until a French president, Jacques Chirac, was finally able "to
admit that the state bore a heavy share of responsibility in the mass
round-ups and deportations of Jews, as well as in the property and asset
seizures that were carried out with the active help of the Vichy regime."
1

1997: Lawyers representing thousands of death camp survivors and
relatives of camp victims initiated a group of lawsuits in the United
States. These were launched to force French banks to return the money
seized from Jewish accounts.

1998: During this year:

Maurice Papon, a senior official in the Vichy regime was
sentenced to ten years in prison for his role in organizing the
deportation of 1,590 Jews from the Bordeaux area.

French officials installed a committee in the central bank's headquarters
to oversee an inventory of all suspect accounts. They set no deadline for
the completion of the task. It was established to "report to an
official state commission led by concentration camp survivor Jean Matteoli,
which is attempting to systematically track down and make an inventory of
goods of all types seized from French Jews during the Nazi occupation years.
2

2000: During this year:

A Wall of Memory was erected at the Memorial to the Jewish
Martyr in Paris' Marais district, the home of most of the
capital's pre-war Jewish community. Dozens of trees were planted,
forming an "avenue of the righteous" that leads up to the
memorial. They honor those French citizens who protected Jews or
helped them to escape from the Nazis.

Lionel Jospin, the prime minister of France, announced that children
of those Jews deported by the Vichy regime will get either a lump sum
payment or a monthly pension. 1

The French government set up a committee to process individual
requests of reparation for confiscated French property. The Matt'oli
Commission estimated that art work and other property worth US$ 1.5
billion was stolen.The
French National Museum is actively trying to locate the owners of
about 2,000 works of art that were seized from Jews during World War
II and shipped to Germany.

2001: The U.S. and French governments reached an agreement which
is expected to be signed in late 2001-JAN. The U.S. lawsuits will probably be
dropped, in exchange for a "substantial, multi-million dollar sum"
to be paid by French banks to Holocaust survivors and descendents of Holocaust victims. The Matt'oli Commission estimated that about
US$ 450 million lies dormant in French accounts.

Michel Japkowicz is a 65-year-old pharmacist in Paris. His father and
brother, then 15 years of age, were exterminated in the Holocaust. He
commented: "The deal was 55 years [too] late. But it's moral
satisfaction. For so long, we've had the impression that France was saying
'we're not guilty -- it's the others.' Now, they're finally making amends."
1